Ongoing architectural evolution creates new unsatisfied needs for special panel configurations for suspended ceilings to satisfy particular environmental and aesthetic requirements and at the same time provide improvements in essential parameters such as ease of installation, safety, and cost effectiveness.
Suspended ceilings commonly utilize a framework of inverted T-bar rails to support panels which are typically of standard size such as 2'.times.2' or 2'.times.4'. As a departure from conventional basic flat solid panels or acoustical boards fabricated from fibrous or composition materials, panels providing special geometric decorative treatments have utilized various patterns such as louvered or gridded arrays, and have typically employed material such as wood, plastic, or fibrous mixtures.
The present invention addresses a new alternative to such known panels to create a visual ceiling plane configured as a fluted pattern formed economically from sheet metal interacting functionally and architecturally in combination with inverted T-bar framework to provide a particular desired finished form, appearance and panel accessability, along with the advantages of metal in durability and safety relative to fire hazard.